classical

The best-known works for left-hand alone piano—including music of Ravel and Prokofiev—were written in the beginning of the last century for Paul Wittgenstein, the Austrian virtuoso who lost his right arm on the battlefield in World War I. A new wave of this specialized repertoire has appeared in our own time for two of the finest American pianists of their generation, Gary Graffman, who is president and director of Curtis, and his friend Leon Fleisher, both of whom lost the use of their right hands due to muscular ailments. For music lovers of maturity, Fleisher needs no introduction. His recordings of Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Schumann and others, most of which are still available, are still unrivaled for their bristling energy, passion and intelligence. He has since become a powerful and important teacher, at Curtis and Peabody (in Baltimore) and is as intense about his art as ever: "I've had to somehow de-emphasize the number of hands or number of fingers and go back to the concept of music as music." This Friday, he will play two works written for him by Dina Koston and George Perle, and will join the Network for New Music players for a performance of a Wittgenstein commission, the glorious Suite, Op. 23 by Erich Korngold. The concert will also include a performance of the Octet: A Grand Fantasia by the recently departed, internationally celebrated Philadelphia composer George Rochberg.

Fri., Dec. 2, 8 p.m., $10-$25, Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999, www.kimmelcenter.org.